Tosin Olami (real name withheld), a Lagos resident, has shared how N231,000 was stolen from her 71-year-old father’s Zenith Bank account last year.
Olami told Wikisearch that the incident occurred on March 23, 2022, when her father attempted to withdraw money from an automated teller machine (ATM).
According to Olami, her father first tried using a United Bank for Africa (UBA) ATM in Otigba, where a woman offered to assist him.
Later, he went to a Zenith Bank ATM, but the machine seized his card. Hoping to retrieve it the following day, he left the bank, only to discover that N231,000 had been withdrawn from his account.
The debit alert
“The woman at the UBA ATM had pressed some buttons and asked my father to enter his PIN,” Olami explained. “When the money didn’t dispense, she asked him if he had taken the cash. He said no, and she canceled the transaction, returning his card.”
“She then suggested he try again, but as soon as he reinserted the card, the machine made a strange noise and still didn’t release any cash. While he was waiting, the woman quickly left the ATM gallery. There was no debit alert at that point, and the machine failed to dispense money.”
The transaction journal
Afterwards, her father decided to try the Zenith Bank ATM to withdraw cash. However, the Zenith machine rejected his card several times before eventually seizing it.
“He planned to return to the bank the next day to retrieve his card, so he headed home. But as soon as he arrived, he received a debit alert for N231,000,” Olami said.
Since then, Olami’s father has repeatedly visited the bank to resolve the issue. Although Zenith Bank provided him with a transaction journal showing that the money was transferred to a First Bank account, they have been unable to recover the funds. The bank asked him to obtain a court order to proceed, but he urgently needs the money to purchase his medication.
When Wikisearch contacted Zenith Bank on April 3, the bank claimed that there was no record of a debit for the stated amount on March 23. However, after a screenshot of the transaction journal was sent, the bank refused to provide further comments.